Man, 38 arrested for alleged N4.5m fraud

A 33-year-old man was yesterday paraded by the Lagos State Police Command for allegedly sending fake bank alerts to his clients.

Babatunde Olaogun, who was arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), was earlier arraigned for impersonating the governor to defraud a car dealer of three vehicles.

He allegedly produced a fake bank statement, which he used to collect N1 million naira loan from money lenders.

According to the police, Olaogun generated a false bank alert which he used to defraud his last victim of 25 cartons of HP computers, valued at N4.5 million.

He promised to remit N2.5 million within two weeks of the purchase, but instead of doing so, he showed them a bank alert indicating payments.

But when the supplier went to withdraw the money, it was discovered that no such transaction was made.

Olaogun, who confessed to the crime, said: “When I bought the laptops, I sold them to someone else but the person did not pay me on time. When I could not pay the supplier as agreed, and he was pressurising me, I decided to send the fake bank alert to him to allow peace.

“I copied several alerts already sent to me by my bank. Then, I edited and retyped it as sms. That was what I showed the supplier; I didn’t send to his phone.”

The suspect admitted he facilitated the vehicles supplied to the governor’s office because of his relationship with the car dealer, saying two of the vehicles were intercepted before getting to Alausa.

“Initially, I was not afraid, but now I regret my actions because I didn’t intend to defraud my friend who supplied the laptops.”

The Lagos State University graduate, who was arrested on May 5, claimed it was greed that pushed him into the act.

Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni said: “The suspect would go into shops and buy good, worth millions of naira, and instead of paying, he would send fake bank alerts to suppliers.

“When the person went to the bank to collect the money, he discovered the fake akert. He also generated fake bank statements to deceive suppliers.

“N5 million and a Toyota Corolla was recovered from him and h will be charged to court,” Owoseni said.